{"id":3082,"date":"2015-10-21T10:48:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T16:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3082"},"modified":"2015-10-21T10:48:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T16:48:31","slug":"why-are-women-more-likely-to-initiate-divorce-than-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/10\/why-are-women-more-likely-to-initiate-divorce-than-men.html","title":{"rendered":"Why are women more likely to initiate divorce than men?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Tribune has a tendency, especially in the \u201cHealth & Family\u201d section, to feature somewhat oldish syndicated articles, and today it was this piece, \u201cWomen are more likely to initiate divorce,\u201d from the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The key bits: \u00a0our expectations for marriage, or, more specifically, women\u2019s<\/em> expectations, have grown dramatically \u2014 men are no longer simply supposed to be good providers, but to provide emotional support, to be fun to be with, to meet a long wish list of traits. \u00a0And as a result:<\/p>\n

According to research that Rosenfeld presented at the American Sociological Association\u2019s annual meeting last week, these heightened expectations can leave women feeling worse off in marriage than men. In a survey of 2,262 adults in heterosexual partnerships over the course of five years, Rosenfeld found that women initiate divorces 69 percent of the time. . . .<\/p>\n

Scientists have known for decades that wives are usually the ones asking for a divorce. But Rosenfeld\u2019s study also surveyed people in non-marital romantic relationships, from casual flings to couples who had lived together for several years; in those relationships, women and men initiated breakups at equal rates. So there\u2019s something about marriage that makes it harder on women.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which reminds me of a recurring theme at Ann Althouse\u2019s blog<\/a> (sometimes directly in her posts, other times playing out in the comments): \u00a0whenever there\u2019s a difference identified between men and women, it\u2019s always interpreted, in the media, as reflecting favorably upon women, or explained by an injustice perpetrated against them \u00a0\u2014 because in this article we\u2019re meant to understand that when a woman divorces a man, it\u2019s always to be understood as the man\u2019s fault for being a bad husband, leaving all the housework to her, for instance. \u00a0Reverse the situation, of course, and it\u2019s also the man\u2019s fault, for failing to stay true to his commitment.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the paper itself<\/a>, and\u00a0the abstract:<\/p>\n

Women initiate most divorces in the US, yet the reasons why women are more likely to\u00a0initiate divorce are poorly understood. In this paper, I use a new longitudinal study of\u00a0relationships and breakups in the US, the How Couples Meet and Stay Together surveys. The\u00a0data examine the gender of who wanted the breakup for both marital and nonmarital\u00a0relationships for the first time. The results show that only in marriages are the majority of\u00a0breakups wanted by the female partner. Men and women in nonmarital heterosexual\u00a0relationships in the US are equally likely to want to break up. Furthermore, wives report lower\u00a0relationship quality than husbands, while men and women in nonmarital relationships report\u00a0equal relationship quality. The results are consistent with a feminist critique of heterosexual\u00a0marriage as a gendered institution in which wives find less satisfaction than husbands do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But do men truly pull their weight while living together, and only once they\u2019ve tied the knot, start refusing to wash the dishes? \u00a0Or do women have higher expectations for their husbands\u2019 behavior than they do of a boyfriend, so that it takes more to feel satisfied? \u00a0The paper speaks of men being \u201ccontrolling\u201d and of there being \u201cpower imbalances\u201d but my quick skim doesn\u2019t provide specific details of exactly what men do that so upsets women.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I\u2019ve only just skimmed the paper, and it is an interesting observation that women are the predominant initiators only of divorce, not other sorts of break ups.<\/p>\n

Standard cop-out concluding thought: \u00a0what do you think?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tribune has a tendency, especially in the \u201cHealth & Family\u201d section, to feature somewhat oldish syndicated articles, and today it was this piece, \u201cWomen are more likely to initiate divorce,\u201d from the Washington Post. The key bits: \u00a0our expectations for marriage, or, more specifically, women\u2019s expectations, have grown dramatically \u2014 men are no longer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy are women more likely to initiate divorce than men?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Tribune has a tendency, especially in the "Health & Family" section, to feature somewhat oldish syndicated articles, and today it was this piece,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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